In an 1853 rag called
La Ilustración, billed as a "Periodico político, científico, moral, estético y religioso," I found some choice snippets from Spanish romantic Manuel Bretón de los Herreros, friend to Larra and Espronceda. Here is a fine example:
Aunque andrajoso, abigarrado y feo
El soldado español vaya a la guerra
Y tenga que vivir el merodeo
Y descansar sobre la dura tierra
Porque las corbas uñas de un hebreo
Roban la plata que el tesoro encierra,
Derrotará al Calmoco y al Cosaco
Si no le faltan pólvora y tobaco.
But what really struck me was the bit quoted as an epigraph to the article I was looking at (which of course extolled the medicinal and economic value of tobacco). I think it will be of interest to both those pipe aficionados among us and to those wishing to follow up on the bird/body-part theme:
Yo exclamé fumando: ¡al cielo plegue
Que salga un golondrino en el sobaco
Al que sea enemigo del tobaco!
Okay, I'm wrong. Just looked up "golondrino" on the Real Academia, and here's the definition they give: "Med. Inflamación infecciosa de las glándulas sudoríparas de la axila." I still like the bird image better.
3 comments:
Hmm. Perhaps you've grown a bit too attached to the noxious weed.
For those who were not at writer's camp, the nightly ritual of the loading, tamping, lighting, relighting, and lighting again of the pipes was wondrous to behold. Indeed, a golondrino would have had time to hatch, mature, seek a mate and build a new nest in my armpit by the time the pipes were sucessfully smoked each evening.
As you can see, I like the bird image too. The beauty of signs is that a single signifier can signify so many different signifieds, no?
Agreed!
Post a Comment